The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 1909.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10238, 30 August 1909, Page 3

The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 1909.

The Opposition's indefinite declamation against the GoThe Truth About veniment is liandthe Land. e<l the whole,

round of' the party's newspapers, whilst certain socalled Liberal organs also run with the hare and hunt with the hounds by giving publicity, without comment, to these denunciations of their friends. For some reason or other, Opposition newspapers are more loyal. The utterances of the New Zealand Herald on the Government's administration of the Crown lands is a case in! point. The whole organisation of the Opposition Press is being used to disseminate and glorify the opinions expressed by the Auckland Herald on this subject, so that such adverse criticisms are published where there is neither contradiction nor explanation of the true position. Unfortunately for New Zealand, the settlers are materially influenced by these industrious propagandists, not only in the North where freehold holds them in thrall, but also in the South where the sale of the Northern lands means nothing better than their deprivation of what might he made a source of increasing revenue which would ease their fiscal burdens. The Herald's indictment of the Government in connection with its land policy, which has been given prominence by the Otago Daily Times, shall not be allowed to gain acceptable currency in the districts in which we circulate, if we can help it. Wc have had to fight on the side of the people time and again during the past quarter of a century, and there is no Opposition instrumentality that dares to plainly pro-

claim that wo have boon guilty of wronging anyone in our advocacy. The resumption of laud policy is acclaimed everywhere as a beneficent aid to settlement, more especially in the South, where the arable Crown lands had all been alienated for cash. It _ was one of the most effective agencies in the revivication of production and progress, which would have otherwise been hindered to the serious detriment of all. If those who are now denouncing the Government's land policy had been directing the destinies of New Zealand, not an estate would have been taken, and there would have been no "Waikakahi, no Ardgowan, no Maerowhenua, no Tokarahi ; no Corriedale, no Windsor, no Eldershe, no Kauroo settlements. Nor would there have been any closer settlement of Cheviot, or any other of the groat landed properties. .. For their own sakes, the settlors, as well as the residents of bur town, should keep this fact steadily before, them when an attempt is being made to seduce them from their allegiance to their faithful friends, the Liberal party _ — their own party. Nor would nine millions of acres of Crown lands have been set apart as endowments, so that in time to come the revenues therefrom would provide for the maintenance of great public services that would otherwise necessitate increased taxation—if the Opposition had been paramount —or, indeed, any advances to settlers. It does not suit the Auckland Herald and its literary congeners to reprobate these blessings.' They abuse the Government on the ground that it is withholding the northern Crown lands from settlement, in the hope that the people will believe that there is something justifiable in their complaint. But it has to be remembered that the northern lands are only now being made available bv railways and roads, and that it would'not oniv be futile but cruel to put settlers upon sections m country that has not been provided with these facilities. Besides, it is more businesslike to settle the Crown lands after railways and roads have, been provided than to settle those lands prior to opening them up in this way. In the one case the settlers would be called upon to pay a fair quota of the cost of railways and roads in the price of the land they take up, and m the other, these conveniences would be a gitt to them from the people of the whole country As to the delay that has taken place in the settlement of such native lands as will be available for European settlement after the ™ tlv % tl,c,ns l S have been provided for, those lands cannot be wrung from the native owners, who, even the Opposition tells us, should be treated in the same way as Europeans. There was a time when the Crown and native lands were alienated by quite different methods, knoimous areas were sold for cash to specuKtors who held them with the intention of- levying blackmail on legitimate settlers Vvho desired to make homes upon them. The money to mSs these areas was advanced chiefly by the Bank of New Zealand so that the Government was- compelled in the end to come to ,ts financial rescue and the cash realised by the Uown went into the Consolidated Fund, was fended wastcfully, and the State was minus the land and had nothing to S for its alienation. Our northern friends, in their thoughtlessness, 01 their frenzy for land specu ation at other people's expense, may another season of such abandonment to greed, but the people of the Smith have nothing to gam and everything to lose by the pursuance of such a policy Let"it be noted that no protest 'was ever uttered by snch papers as the Auckland .Herald .when- both Crown and native lands (to which the State, by. reason of its expenditure ot several millions on the Native War and : tha Nativo Department had a right, it they were to pass from native owner-

ship) were beiiig trafficked in with such drunken prodigality. The wrongs of this bitter past cannot bo rectified, but wo can avoid such folly in the administration of tho lands which remain.